COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

MOTION NO. 12

MOTION: Councillor P. Cosgrave

CATHAOIRLEACH'S BUSINESS

"That the Manager put in place funding to refurbish the Flats at Pearse Brother Park with immediate effect to alleviate the unhealthy condition for the residents living there. In that there is no funding available from the Department of Environment for the new houses at Taylors Lane and the co-project of refurbishing the Pearse Brother Flats."

REPORT:

Following a recommendation from the Council’s Architectural Services Department that the Pearse Brothers Park and Palmer Park estates be included in a refurbishment programme, the residents were consulted, by way of survey carried out in 2006, in order to ascertain their views on how any refurbishment programme would proceed. The residents indicated that their preference would be to be re-housed locally while the existing units were being refurbished and accommodation within the proposed Council developments at Glendoher and Kingston was identified for this purpose. However, due to the unavailability of capital funding, the works at Glendoher and Kingston have not progressed to tender stage. No approval was received from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government for new housing starts for social housing schemes within the county in 2009.

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, by way of circular letter N11/2008 requested that any submission for funding under the Remedial Works Programme 2009 be submitted to the Department by the 31^st October 2008. Because of the scarcity of funding available nationally under the Remedial Works Programme for 2009 and the uncertainty of when the proposed developments at Glendoher and Kingston would be completed, South Dublin County Council’s application for funding was confined to the continuation of existing refurbishment works in Cushlawn in Tallaght and Shancastle and Greenfort in Clondalkin. The Council was informed, by way of letter from the Department, dated the 10^th February 2009, that approval in principle has been granted to the proposed refurbishment works in Cushlawn, Greenfort and Shancastle. However, notwithstanding approval for these schemes being granted, there has been no provision for funding made by the Department to progress these works to date.

Currently, no authorisation has been granted by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to proceed with any refurbishment works at Pearse Brothers Park and no funding has been allocated by the Department for this purpose. The Council is still committed to refurbishing these flats subject to a funding source being identified. However, in light of the current financial circumstances facing the Council, it is not possible to source funding from the Council’s own resources for such a refurbishment programme at this current time.